Juan Agudelo To Miss Up To 6 Weeks

Ouch. Just on the heels of the New York Red Bulls winning their first game of the season, in convincing fashion I might add, they announce the news that young striker Juan Agudelo will be sidelined for up to six weeks after tearing his medial meniscus during the United States U-23’s 6-0 win over Cuba on Friday.

Agudelo was scheduled to undergo surgery on Monday.

It’s pretty likely that even when Agudelo returns to action for the Red Bulls that he’ll find himself back on the bench. Kenny Cooper and Thierry Henry are clearly the best choice at the moment for the club in the attack and Agudelo has never truly been in the good graces of manager Hans Backe.

It will be interesting to see if – and when he returns – as to just how much Backe will play him. One has to think that by that time the club should have Luke Rodgers back from his visa issues which means he’ll clearly be further down the depth chart. Not a good situation for a young striker that clearly needs playing time to progress here (gosh never thought I’d be writing that about an US player in MLS).